Premier League kit-tracker – Gameweeks 8 and 9

• Apologies for the delay in getting these up – we were struck with a paralysis about how to best render the Chelsea third shirt. Hopefully, future updates will be more punctual. Once again, Matt Smith provides some views on the team’s choices, his input is marked MS 

Gameweek 7

Friday, October 5

Brighton & Hove Albion 1 West Ham United 0

Five of the ten away teams wore mashups, with West Ham showing off a third home shirt combination (we think claret-white-blue was worn in pre-season, too). This one brought to mind Lee Champman’s goalscoring debut at Blackburn in 1993, though sadly for the Hammers it didn’t have the same lucky charms.

Saturday, October 6

Burnley 1 Huddersfield Town 1

MS: Huddersfield’s addition of plain black socks to avoid a clash ensured they were not only able to retain their home shirt and shorts, but also reintroduced their traditional strip to the Premier League. It is an outfit they have worn many times down the years and actually looks better for the introduction of black.

Crystal Palace 0 Wolverhampton Wanderers 1

Both in default home kits, though the first sighting of the lighter grey outfit for Wolves goalkeeper Rui Patricio.

Leicester City 1 Everton 2

If you were being picky, you’d say that a white Everton third kit, rather than this slightly darker shade, would have allowed the shorts and socks from the home strip to be mixed and matched, but they still deserve applause for having proper alternative shorts for this outfit.

Tottenham Hotspur 1 Cardiff City 0

MS: Cardiff’s mix and match to avoid an abundance of blue against the increased navy of Tottenham didn’t really work. In fact, it was maybe surprising they didn’t turn out in the fluorescent yellow/green third shirt.

Watford 0 Bournemouth 4

MS: Bournemouth dug deep into the Umbro kit cupboard to find some white socks to use with their away kit. With Watford in black shorts and socks, there was obviously going to be a clash if the Cherries had gone with the usual navy.

Manchester United 3 Newcastle United 2

MS: Newcastle could easily have utilised the white shorts that had appeared at Palace the previous week, though clearly that would have been a missed opportunity to market their blue change kit.

David de Gea wore orange for the first time.

Sunday, October 7

Fulham 1 Arsenal 5

Having played the first seven games in their home kit, Arsenal finally had a chance to use their navy away. Goalkeeper Bernd Leno, starting his first game, gave the purple kit its first run-out, though the green would probably have been better.

Southampton 0 Chelsea 3

Chelsea broke out their third kit. According to the club website, “The dynamic print on the shirt’s centre includes an aerial depiction of Stamford Bridge and its surrounding area, ensuring a link to home even when the team is playing away.”

Liverpool 0 Manchester City 0

Liverpool wore the logo of Seeing is Believing, a long-standing collaboration between Standard Chartered and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB). However, the white logo on goalkeeper Alisson’s yellow shirt was questionable.

The custodian wore long sleeves for the first time, having previously used short sleeves with and without a baselayer. His compatriot Ederson also switched to long sleeves.

City had worn the default yellow away socks at Wolves, but here the paired the home set with the away shirts and shorts.

Saturday, October 20

Chelsea 2 Manchester United 2

While there wasn’t technically a need for Manchester United to change shorts, the switch did make them look more like themselves.

Today's match was the first in 47 years that United wore the red/white/red combination, officially at least.

— unitedkits.com (@manunitedkits) October 20, 2018

Bournemouth 0 Southampton 0

With Southampton goalkeeper Alex McCarthy unable to wear black or blue and Asmir Begovic prevented from using black or yellow, we had that rarest of treats, a goalkeeper kit-clash.

And nobody died.

Cardiff City 4 Fulham 2

Like Manchester United, Fulham changed from black shorts to white against blue-shorted hosts.

This set had white stripes on white, mismatching the shirts and socks. While the 2017-18 away socks had been used at Everton, these were not from that strip, as those shorts had had black stripes and would have been a more coherent options.

Manchester City 5 Burnley 0

Burnley’s sock-change means that, while they have worn their black away shirts twice, both instances have been mashups.

Newcastle United 0 Brighton & Hove Albion 1

Like Burnley, Brighton’s first two outings in their green away shirts were with alternative items included.

Normally, it wouldn’t be possible to use black socks at St James’ Park, but Newcastle’s switch to white this season facilitated the Seagulls using their second kit as intended.

West Ham United 0 Tottenham Hotspur 1

Spurs’ navy change socks arguably make for a better overall impact of the gradient effect at the bottom of the shirts.

Wolverhampton Wanderers 0 Watford 2

Watford have been more discerning in the use of their change kit this season, but it was warranted here.

Huddersfield Town 0 Liverpool 1

Back to short sleeves for Alisson, albeit with a pink baselayer for the first time.

Sunday, October 21

Everton 2 Crystal Palace 0

Palace could have used their white change shirts in mashup format – we’ve have loved to have seen red shorts and blue socks – but on balance the yellow third kit was a better option.

Monday, October 22

Arsenal 3 Leicester City 1

Leicester made it nine straight games without having changed their kit. That meant that Gameweek 9 was the first in which no team premiered a new strip.